Antechinus argentus, Baker, Mutton & Hines, 2013

Dyck, Steve Van, 2014, The Black-tailed Antechinus, Antechinus arktos sp. nov.: a new species of carnivorous marsupial from montane regions of the Tweed Volcano caldera, eastern Australia, Zootaxa 3765 (2), pp. 101-133 : 116

(7) A. arktos versus A. argentus Baker, Mutton & Hines

Pelage: A. arktos has a brownish-grey head that changes markedly to an orange-brown rump, fuscous black hindfeet, a thick-based, finely-furred, black tail and an orange-yellow eye and cheek patch; A. argentus has a silvery head and neck that merge subtly to deep olive-buff coloured fur on the rump and flanks.

External Measurements: A. arktos is larger than A. argentus in absolute measurement for wt, hb, tv, hf in males and in hf for females. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. argentus in females for hb and tv (see Table 5).

Craniodental Characters: A. arktos is larger than A. argentus in absolute measurement for a range of craniodental characters in both males and females: APV, BL, Dent, IBW, IOW, OBW, PPV, HT, PL, TC, NWR, PML, UML, HT-B, I 1 -P 3, LML, I 1 -P 3 and UPL. A. arktos is significantly larger than A. argentus in ZW for females ( Table 5).

Other Comments: A. arktos occur in south-east Qld and north-east NSW in areas of high elevation and rainfall on the Tweed Volcano caldera, whereas A. argentus occurs more than 400 kilometres to the north at Kroombit Tops NP (south-east Qld). Genetics: Uncorrected pairwise range differences at the mitochondrial gene CytB between A. arktos and A. argentus are 12.4–12.8%.